It was the most terrifying, the most heartbreaking day. I was on a plane the evening before it happened, September 10. I was in Los Angeles, and all I wanted was to get back to my home — New York.
Catalog
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino (/pəˈtʃiːnoʊ/; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor of stage and screen, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Pacino has had a career spanning some fifty years, during which time he has received numerous accolades and honors both competitive and honorary, among them an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts. He is also one of few performers to have won a competitive Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award for acting, dubbed the "Triple Crown of Acting". A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio in New York City, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino made his feature film debut with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969) and gained favorable notices for his lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). He achieved international acclaim and recognition for his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). He received his first Oscar nomination and would reprise the role in the equally successful sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). Pacino's performance as Corleone is now regarded as one of the greatest screen performances in film history. Pacino received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for Serpico (1973); he was also nominated for The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and ...And Justice for All (1979) and won the award in 1993 for his performance as a blind Lieutenant Colonel in Scent of a Woman (1992). For his performances in The Godfather, Dick Tracy (1990) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Pacino was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other notable roles include Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way (1993), Lieutenant Vincent Hanna in Heat (1995), Benjamin Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997), Lowell Bergman in The Insider (1999) and Detective Will Dormer in Insomnia (2002
[teaching Apollonia to drive] It's safer to teach you English!
Michael: You and I are going to move my father to another room, now can you disconnect those tubes so we can move the bed out of here? Night Nurse: That is out of the question. Michael: You know my father? Men are coming here to kill him, now help me, please.
Michael: [the car that Michael, Sollozzo, and McClusky are riding in takes an unexpected detour] New Jersey... we're going to New Jersey? Sollozzo: [sinister] Maybe.
Sollozzo: I'm glad you came, Mike. I hope we can straighten everything out. I mean, this is terrible... it's not the way I wanted things to go at all. It should've never happened. Michael: We'll straighten everything out tonight. I don't want my father bothered anymore. Sollozzo: He won't be, Mike.…
[speaking with the father of the girl he plans to marry, and after telling him that he's in hiding from some gangsters] Michael: Some people will pay a lot of money for that information; but then your daughter would lose a father, instead of gaining a husband.
Sollozzo: [to Michael, in Sicilian] I am sorry. What happened to your father was business. I have much respect for your father. But your father, his thinking is old-fashioned. You must understand why I had to do that. Now let's work through where we go from here. [Michael tries speaking in Sicilian,…
Michael: You have to answer for Santino, Carlo. You fingered Sonny for the Barzini people. Carlo Rizzi: Mike, you got it all wrong. Michael: Ah, that little farce you played with my sister. You think that would fool a Corleone? Carlo Rizzi: Mike, I'm innocent. I swear on the kids. Michael: Sit down.…
Michael Corleone: Where does it say that you can't kill a cop? Tom Hagen: Come on, Mikey... Michael Corleone: Tom, wait a minute. I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a—a—a dishonest cop—a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him.…
[to the Don, quietly] Just lie here, Pop. I'll take care of you now. I'm with you now. I'm with you. [he takes the Don's hand and kisses it, the Don begins to cry]
Michael: All right. This one time I'll let you ask me about my affairs. Kay Adams: Is it true? Is it? Michael: No. [Kay smiles and walks into his arms] Kay Adams: I guess we both need a drink, huh? [Kay goes to the kitchen to fix a drink, but sees Peter Clemenza, Rocco Lampone, and Al Neri enter…
Michael: My credit good enough to buy you out? Moe Greene: Buy me out? [Fredo laughs nervously] Michael: The hotel, the casino. The Corleone Family wants to buy you out. Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out. Michael: Your casino loses money,…
Kay Adams: Michael, you never told me you knew Johnny Fontane! Michael: Sure, you want to meet him? Kay Adams: Well, yeah! Sure. Michael: My father helped him with his career. Kay Adams: How did he do that? Michael: ...Let's listen to the song. Kay Adams: [after listening to Johnny for a while] Tell…
Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator. Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed. Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?
Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.
We can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us...or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch at a time.
The margin for error is so small. I mean one half a step too early or too late you don't quite make it. One half a second too slow of too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of every game, every minute and every second.
This game has got to be about more than winning. You're part of something here... along the way, I want you to cherish it, because when it's gone, it's gone forever.
We're in hell right now gentlemen. Believe me. And we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time.
It's the guy everybody's looking at first - the leader of a team - who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. 'Cause you make them believe.